Cooking With Kids–Preserving Memories–#LMDConnector

It’s so very hard to believe that there are only 10 days left until school goes back. A wee bit sad about that. Our time vanished much too fast and yet, there were some very fun times. A week at the cottage. Our first ride on the subway in Toronto. A weekend in Toronto. For me, there was Blogher 12 and a great work trip to New York City. For my kids there was drama camp, riding camp, learning to ride a new bike, visiting Toronto and of course the baby guinea pigs!! My oldest girl got to sleep in a tent, real camping (I am not a camper so this was huge for her. They also got to go fishing for the first time ever.) And she even got to sleep in a trailer. Not too shabby!
So, why do I still feel sad? Well, we didn’t get to do half of what I really wanted to do yet. I still have to hit Blue Mountain and/or maybe Kalahari. My roof is busting, my workload greater than it has been in years and still – Oh my goodness these days I am more keenly aware than ever that there are only a precious few summers together in the life of a child. So how do you steal those tiny moments that solidify your relationship together. Well, we bake and we do science experiments and we spend time in our tiny kitchen building memories and preserving some too. There is the occasional road trip. And then there is swimming, fitness and food.

This week we decided to pick something from the Life Made Delicious menu and preserve a little piece of summer. So we hit the site and found this…delicious little cheesy macaroni cakes. Oh my heavens! Yummy. Comfort food in a bite-sized little package.

Now, the original recipe here is gluten free cheesy macaroni, and the crust part is made with gluten free Rice Chex cereal from General Mills. I tried that on about half of ours and it is delicious but ran out of the Rice Chex to finish and honestly the noodles we used aren’t gluten free because I love the little rainbow noodles we have. They are called Mini Mac and Cheese cakes and basically you make the crust from egg, cheese, crushed Rice Chex and some butter. Then you make the filling with gluten free noodles (for the gluten free variation) or regular for the regular version. How fabulous is this – that you could easily adapt it for either gluten free or regular diet?
You need:
1 cup elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups of shredded cheese
3 cups Rice Chex cereal crushed (for gluten free version)
5 tbsp of butter
1 cup milk,
1 tbsp gluten free flour
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp of salt
1 egg white _beaten until stiff
(Cook and drain the macaroni)
Take crushed Chex and mix with 1 cup of shredded cheese as well as 4 tbsp of melted butter. Crush it into bottom of small muffin tin. Lightly grease the muffin tins first or line with tart liners as I did to prevent sticking. In a 3 quart saucepan, stir together remaining butter and flour over low heat, add milk, stir in the 1 cup of cheese, macaroni, egg yolk and salt. When cheese is melted spoon this mix into the shells. Add the rest of the cheese as you are finishing each cake. Cook at about 350 for 20 minutes.

The source for this original recipe is https://www.lifemadelicious.ca

We loved this one. My nephew popped by for a sleepover tonight and pronounced them incredibly delicious!. So, how is that, for memories. Aunt Paula’s food is not so bad. He tells me he wants them for breakfast, they are that good. So, you know what? Why not? Preserving memories with my nephew too. I think he’ll remember that. Plus, pretty sure he will always remember the time I let him and my Ainsley swing off the bunkbeds at the cottage. They were supervised, don’t worry. I would have caught them with my Ninja reflexes (He hollered at me giggling madly: Aunt Paula aren’t your supposed to be the responsible one here?)
In the end, although we didn’t exactly manage to get to the entire summer bucket list, we made some memories, we preserved a few here, on line, in person, in pictures and I am confident we have more on the way. We might not have made it through the entire list, but well what’s that saying – Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans?

The original recipe is here on https://www.lifemadedelicious.ca/

• I am part of the Life Made Delicious blogger program with General Mills and Mom Central Canada, as such I receive compensation and special perks. My opinion is all my own.